One of anime's great sporting legends, this is the story of Joe Yabuki, a 15-year-old from the wrong side of the tracks living by his wits in Tokyo, who meets Danbei, a once-great boxing coach now seeking refuge from his past in drink. Both see something they need in the other-Joe a source of free meals, Danbei a potentially great fighter and a reason to live. Under the cloak of training with Danbei, Joe carries on a life of petty crime, eventually getting caught and sent to prison. Over a year inside, he finally realizes that Danbei was offering him both friendship and a future, and he carries on with the training regime the two had set up. On his release, he begins a successful boxing career. As he rises through the ranks, his main rival is Toru Rikiishi, a prison acquaintance, who dies tragically in a bout with Joe at the end of the series, leaving the champion devastated.

TJ is the most famous creation of Tetsuya Chiba, also known for Weather Permitting, I'm Teppei, and Notari Matsutaro. His 1968 Shonen Magazine manga was drawn from a script by Karate Crazy Life's Ikki Kajiwara, who used the pseudonym Asao Takamori since he was also writing Star of the Giants for a rival magazine at the time. The story was also adapted as a 1970 live-action film. It continued to attract readers after the series it inspired had ended, and in 1980, with a second series in production for Nippon TV, the first series was edited to feature length for theatrical release, providing background for new fans and a reminder of the story for older ones. Though many of the old crew returned to work on the sequel, TJ2 also featured new directors, including Mizuho Nishikubo and Toshio Takeuchi. It opens as Joe, having given up boxing after Riki's death, is brought back to the ring through the encouragement of his friends. This time, as in the manga, the tragic death at the end of the series is Joe's own, and fans were inconsolable. The second anime movie, premiered in 1981 was an edit of this series. The title Rocky Joe was adopted for Western sale in an attempt to cash in on the popularity of Sylvester Stallone's live-action film series, obscuring the fact that Joe was there first. V